Nothing new so much as Elliot reports that Teemu will meet with Coach Boudreau and the GM next week before announcing his decision. Bob Murray confirmed via email that he and Flash have talked “a couple of times” in the past week.

Via OC Register – no link

According to a report by Eric “Ice” Stephens, Teemu has yet to meet with Coach Boudreau regarding his role next season. Stephens tweeted however, that his role is key to Teemu’s decision.
No mention of Teemu playing elsewhere. Stephens seems to think it’s Ducks or retire with Teemu leaning toward returning to our Ducks. I’m not convinced.

“My point is, if they’re (Ducks Young Guns) better than I am, I am expecting and accepting a smaller role, But if I’m better, I need to play more. I need to play top minutes. That’s what I’m looking for.”

Ed: If Teemu earns a top six minutes he should play top six minutes. IF he doesn’t he will have to accept a lesser role.

“That’s fair for everybody. To be honest, I’ve been playing a big role. I don’t know if I’m ready to play 10-12 minutes a game. And that’s what I want to make sure. If I play well, I get what I deserve.”

“Sometimes it’s not like that. So I want to make sure I’m treated the way I deserve.”

This sets up the possibility of a situation none of us want to witness. It is the sad and ugly situation where the Coach and Teemu disagree on what role he’s earned. What then?

Teemu wasn’t exactly thrilled last season when his minutes were reduced. How he accepted the reduced role was an issue. Coach had to give extra thought about telling Teemu to take days off. BB even asked rhetorically, “Do you want to be the one to tell Teemu Selanne not to lace ’em up?”

Selanne will join a long list of players who had to be shot to get them off the ice when it was time. I was hoping Flash would spare us that, but I get why he can’t.

This blog is my connection to the game. I’ve been doing this and/or Sports Radio on one platform or another for nearly 20 consecutive years now. I played until I couldn’t. I coached until I could no longer demonstrate properly. So now I blog.

Fact is, you’re never really done until you say you’re done or you die.

Could Teemu Selanne’s return the Ducks? Gutsy post for a relatively new Ducks blog.

Ed.: The answer of course is maybe. If Teemu has another 25+goal 50+ point season in him then no, his return won’t hurt our Ducks. The thing with a player like Teemu though is, if he’s not scoring, he’s not helping.
Each of Teemu’s competitors have questions. Can Penner bounce back alongside his buds? Are two of the kids, Palmieri, Etem or Silfverberg ready for top six roles? Coach wants to see Beleskey earn a bigger role this season.
This blog asked the question, “Is there room for Teemu on the roster?” Man, asking if Selanne’s return could hurt the Ducks is a splash of cold water on a Monday morning face.

“Shea is a great skater and can really move the puck. The way the game is played now, that’s really important,” said Executive Vice President and General Manager Bob Murray. “You need players like that. We are really excited.”

On who he would compare himself to in the NHL,I would compare myself to a Mike Green of Washington. An offensive defenseman who likes to move the puck.

Various teams and scouts had Theodore rated all over the map. His best review comes form NHL Central Scouting:

“Smooth as silk. He’s a really nice player. He can lay down a pass just as good as anyone in the league, always on the tape. He’s really heady and really smart, and he actually runs their power play. I like everything about him. Good size, good movement.”

Shea is well suited for the new-NHL. He’s got great speed, moves the puck extremely well, gets his shots through to the opposing net. He has much to learn about the defensive parts of the game. It’s really way to soon to characterize him before we see how he does at the next level. For now,, that next level will have to wait since Shea is scheduled to continue with the Seattle Thunderbirds of the Canadian Hockey League.

Safe to say that GM Bob Murray surprised everyone for the second consecutive draft.

In the second round Murray continued to surprise when he took Quebec Ramparts RW Nick Sorensen. The high scoring Sorensen said he was glad to be picked by Anaheim and counts Hampus Lindholm and Rickared Rickel among his buddies. A Dane, Sorensen met the young Ducks prospects while playing his junior years in Sweden.

Each of these drafted young men are in their late teens and not likely to impact our Ducks for a couple-3 years down the road.

Ducks have not made a trade…yet. As anticipated the Entry Draft didn’t disappoint as a flurry of significant, if not blockbuster trades were made.

Unable to find a taker for Roberto Luongo’s contract, the Canucks shipped Cory Schneider to the New Jersey in exchange for the Devils 9th pick overall. Canucks used the pick to acquire highly rated center Bo Hovart.
Many are calling Gillis whacked but as I posted to THN’s Ken Campbell, many are criticizing Gillis because he didn’t get anyone to help Vancouver now. By not taking a salary back and getting comfortably under the cap, Gillis has saved the Nucks from trading Alexander Edler.
This might be one of those times when the trade you didn’t make is the bst trade of all.

Toronto Maple Leafs got stronger down the middle when they acquired Dave Bolland from Chicago. The Blackhawks received Leafs second-round (51st overall) and fourth-round (117th) picks Sunday and a fourth-round pick in 2014.

In another cap space creating move the ‘hawks Michal Frolik to Winnipeg in exchange for the Jets 3rd and 5th round picks today.

With the cap space created Chicago moved to sign Bryan Bickell to a 4 year $16m contract.

Minnesota sent pending UFA antagonist Cal Clutterbuck to the New York Islanders for the Ilse’s top pick from last season Nino Niedereitter. The Isle’s top pick form last season failed to impress at camp and later whined publicly when was sent to the AHL.

In another move about getting rid of players who just didn’t fit, the Carolina Hurricanes sent promising young D-man Jamie McBain their 2nd round pick to Buffalo for D-man Andrej Sekera.

San Jose Sharks helped themselves picking up Tyler Kennedy from the Pittsburgh Penguins for a second round (50th overall) pick in today’s draft.

Like this:

Tonight’s game is like the last day at work or school before vacation or spring break. All you want to do is get past it.

Even Coach set practice to optional.

For us fans it’s a good game to bring out our measuring sticks. Our Ducks are about to meet their toughest challenge of the season. Themselves. Tonight our Ducks will fight the temptation to watch the scoreboard. They also must motivate themselves to play in a meaningless game.

Even the Ducks Official website is calling this game a “playoff tune-up.” If I’m Coyotes coach Dave Tippett that’s on the white board. Along with a chat about how the Ducks and the City of Anaheim have no respect for these Phoenix Coyotes.

In a game like this though the ‘Yotes really aren’t the challenge. We are the challenge. Can we raise our intensity, compete and play the disciplined brand hockey that earned our Ducks a 30-11-6 season record?

The ‘Yotes are playing their third game in four nights and second of back to back games. Even casual fans know that’s a rough road.

The only key to this game is will.

Note: I don’t care who will become our first round playoff opponent. Each of Detroit, Columbus and Minnesota present a unique challenge. Right now Minnesota looks to be the easy out. That could change by the time the puck drops next week.

One way to look at this is the whole league is returning from injury that kept them out for 34 games. Here are a few things you can expect to see in camp and in the early going:

1. Guys who played in Europe and the ‘A’ will be noticeably ahead of players who hung out at scrimmages and/or skated on their own.

2. Adjusting to the ice. It’s much harder for goalies because the angles are all different. The primary and secondary high percentage shooting areas cover more space on the larger European ice surface. For skaters, it’s mostly adapting to the feeling of being hurried on the smaller NA ice.

3. Teams with little roster turnover will have a jump over teams breaking in new players at key positions. Count our Ducks among the latter.

4. Expect 35 or fewer players invited to camp. Maybe fewer than 30 for teams without many roster questions. You will also see a more tryout contracts offered to the many UFA’s available by teams with unanswered roster questions.

5. Sloppy play! When you come back after a long layoff the hardest thing to get back is your timing and coordination. Give it 5 weeks and a dozen or so in season games before becoming overly judgmental.

Overall, this is quite different from the start of season where everyone is starting even. You’ve got guys coming in from the ‘A’ and Europe who are in game shape playing with and against guys trying to find their legs. Goalies adjusting to angles.

And maybe most of all will be the Refs. Let’s hope there’s an improvement on the uneven and unpredictability of the officiating. Consistency in penalty calling will do more than anything else in returning the game to the players and fans.

Okay, who put the stupid pills in the team meal? Ahlers, Hayward, Koivu and I’m certain Randy Carlyle will echo them and talk about turnovers. it’s true, we did turn it over often. What amazed me was how we turned it over.

How many times do you have to skate into a trap before you make the East/West or drop pass sooner? Where’s the coaching, when that happens consistently? Where’s the chatter about connecting to the outlet guy sooner?

In the past few games I’ve noticed that as the period wears on our guys having difficulty head manning the puck out of our zone. That’s the ice folks. When you can make those 15-25 foot passes early in each period but don’t later, it’s because snow has built up on the ice. The puck slows down. (more…)